Annotated Bibliography for Saudi Students Studying Abroad

Study Abroad and Intellectual Development
Cressey, W. W. (2004). Guide to studying abroad. New York: Random House.
The interesting questions I will research are how studying abroad will contribute to a Saudi Arabia’s industry, education, and economy. According to Cressey’s book “Guide to studying abroad” (2004), it is actually recommended to study abroad while in university as this not only opens students eyes to life overseas but also provides job networking opportunities that are not available in one’s home country. Cressey also comments that studying abroad can also be a life changing experience and that students will often experience new modes of training, which could be useful when working overseas. This source is excellent for making recommendations and providing expert tips. However, it does not focus much on Saudi Arabian students. It is more general.
Lennon, A. T. J. (2007). The epicenter of crisis: The new Middle East. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Saudi Arabia has gained increased publicity over the past fifteen years due to historical events such as 9/11 and the Arab Spring. Alexander Lennon’s book, The epicenter of crisis: The new Middle East does a good job of outlining contemporary Middle Eastern issues. Saudi Arabia’s recent political and cultural history is important to understand in order to understand the impacts of studying abroad on its youth. The book is a collection of essays and extremely useful as a few of them have to do directly with Saudi Arabia. It does not speak about studying abroad; however, the information is still useful in better understanding the politics and culture of Saudi Arabia. Mahmood, Z. (2013). E-government implementation and practice in developing countries. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.
Zaigham Mahmood discusses improved government practices in his 2013 publication, “E-government implementation and practice in developing countries”. The author states that improvements in information and communication technologies have led to more effective governance, processes, and services. For Saudi Arabia specifically, the government has been influenced positively by the implementation of e-government projects. For example, many scholarship and grant programmes have been created due to better information and communication technologies. This article is a good source for understanding the strides the Saudi Arabian government has made in improving its many functions.
McKeown, J. S. (2009). The first time effect: The impact of study abroad on college student intellectual development. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Saudi Student Mobility & Scholarship Programmes

Denman, Brian D., and Kholoud T. Hilal. “From Barrier to Bridges: An Investigation On Saudi Student Mobility (2006-2009).” International Review Of Education 57.3-4 (2011): 299-318. ERIC. Web. 9 March 2014.
The International Review of Education is a helpful source for researching studying abroad. In the 2011, the 57th edition of the journal was released with the article, “From Barrier to Bridges: An Investigation On Saudi Student Mobility” by Denman and Kholoud. The article provides the historical and cultural factors, which resulted in the Saudi Arabian government’s increase in funding for higher education. It is these grants and scholarships that enable more and more Saudi students to study at universities overseas. A strength of this source is the specific data pertaining to the King Abdullah Scholarship Programme, which shows enrolment data for the years between 2006 and 2009. This information is helpful in identifying, demonstrating and understanding trends and policy changes of student mobility in Saudi Arabia.
Marklein, Mary Beth. “Record Number of Foreign Students in US” USA Today. November 12, 2012. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 March 2014.
The mobility of Saudi Arabian students is documented in Marklein’s article (2011) in USA Today, “Record Number of Foreign Students in US”. In fact, the second largest nation to send students abroad to the United States, after China, is Saudi Arabia. From the year 2010 to 2011, the number of students from Saudi Arabia jumped 50% to 34,139, which is mostly due to the scholarship programme by Saudi Arabian King Abdullah. This verifies the success of the King Abdullah Scholarship Programme.
Ministry of Higher Education. "King Abdullah Scholarship Program." Www.sacm.org. N.p., 2011. Web. 9 Mar. 2014. <http://www.sacm.org/ArabicSACM/pdf/education_web.pdf>.
According to the Ministry of Higher Education’s report on the King Abdullah Scholarship Programme, the states in the United States with the highest numbers of KSA students are California, Texas, and Ohio. The report lacks newer information from more recent years since 2011. However, the report does document the SACM’s objective in providing Saudi students with a study abroad opportunity: “it is SACM’s wish for all students to enhance their lives as much as possible from their experience abroad All students sponsored by KASP are provided with the following benefits during their study abroad period: monthly stipend, full academic tuition, medical and dental coverage, annual round trip tickets, and academic supervision” (2011).
Rogers, M. (2004). Knowledge, technological catch-up and economic growth. Cheltenham, U.K: E. Elgar Pub.
Of course the study abroad programme for these Saudi students does come with a cost. Another disadvantage of the Ministry’s report is that it fails to provide programme costs and the full amount of scholarship received. Mark Rogers takes a stab at calculating these figures in the report, “Knowledge, Technological Catch-Up and Economic Growth” (2004). He estimates that the net contributions of students to their hosts countries for a year would be between $16-19 million. Similarly, this figure is between 2.3-2.8% of what international students contribute to the Saudi economy within the same amount of time. There are still more uncertainties with these figures; however, a lack of reporting makes us unable to derive further conclusions.
Smith, L., & Abu, A. A.-R. M. (2013). Higher education in Saudi Arabia: Achievements, challenges and opportunities. Dordrecht: Springer.
The only resource that provides more understanding of the cost of study abroad is Smith and Abu’s, “Higher education in Saudi Arabia: Achievements, challenges, and opportunities (2013). However, the statistics from this report are still outdated as it indicates in the years 2000-2011, foreign students contributed $9.06 billion to the Saudi Arabian national economy. These figures include fees and tuition, room and board, and personal expenditures such as entertainment. There is no number to compare this to Saudi Arabian students studying abroad.
More specifics costs would be useful to understand as it has been previously documented that 59 per cent of all foreign students finance their education in Saudi Arabia from their personal and familial savings (Lennon, 2007).

Benefits of Studying Abroad

The most useful source for understanding the benefits of studying abroad is Laura Perna, from the University of Pennsylvania's book, “Preparing today’s students for tomorrow’s jobs in Metropolitan America” (2013). Preparing today's students for tomorrow's jobs in Metropolitan America. The benefits listed by the author include: empowerment, promotion of equitable access to key resources, building quality relationships with peers in a study abroad programme or another community while abroad, and increasing a student’s capacity in all aspects. These are fundamental objectives that could be gained by Saudi students while abroad. Study abroad programmes can be useful not only at the college level, but also for primary, secondary, and tertiary level educations for Saudi Arabians. Other benefits of study abroad programmes include the acquisition of new languages, such as English, and acquisition of new skills such as how to use computer programmes that might not have been available at local schools. Of course, personal development is a huge component of taking a study abroad programme. Perna outlines these benefits and more in her newly published book.

Difficulties and Controversies with Study Abroad Programmes

Mills, Andrew. “Poorly Performing Students Ordered Home By Saudis.” Chronicle of Higher Education. 55.6 (2008): A24. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 March 2014.
Unfortunately, although King Abdullah’s Scholarship Programme seems great in theory, there are several issues in its practice. In Andrew Mill’s article, “Poorly Performing Students Ordered Home By Saudis” (2008), it is reported that more than 500 Saudi Arabian students were recalled in study abroad programmes due to “weak performances and poor attendance records”. A weakness of the article it does not discuss the factors, which lead to poor performances. I would guess that factors include language barriers, differences in cultural norms and expectations, and emotional troubles of being away from home. an effect of the article and these statistics is that the government is now requiring students to attend excessive orientation courses before studying in a foreign country (Mills, 2008).

Studying Abroad & Effects on International Labor Market

Parey, M. & Waldinger, F. (2009). Studying Abroad and the Effect on International Labor Market Mobility. Retrieved on March 9, 2014 from http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/staff/academic/waldinger/research/studyingabroad5_mp_oct9.pdf
An interesting question is whether studying abroad will assist students in securing a job after graduation, especially jobs overseas. According to Parey and Waldinger’s article on “Studying Abroad and the Effect on International Labor Market Mobility”, students who study abroad are 15% more likely to work in a foreign country after graduation. The article surveyed students who participated in the European ERASMUS between the years 1980 to 2000 with the research first published in 2007. The article used for the research paper was from October 2, 2009, which offers the most up to date information and is very informative with its many graphs, which make the data more understandable to the reader. As shown by the authors, the rise in advertising job opportunities internationally is due to the heightened need for skilled labour globally. For this reason, it is beneficial for students from Saudi Arabia to study overseas, in programmes such as ERASMUS, so that they can identify international job opportunities. Saudi Arabia’s government could benefit from this as KSA nationals’ income would contribute to the growth of their economy through currency exchange.
Salisbury, M. H., Twombly, S. B., Tumanut, S. D., & Klute, P. (2013). Study abroad in a new global century: Renewing the promise, refining the purpose, ashe higher education report. San Francisco, Calif: Jossey-Bass.
Another article that attempts to link study abroad programmes with the international job market is Salisbury, Twombly, Tumanut, and Klute’s, “Study abroad in a new global century: Renewing the promise, refining the purpose” (2013). This report highlights how skills learnt while studying abroad directly transfers to marketable skills for their future industries. However, what this report is missing is specific, quantitative data to confirm this claim. After reading through this report, the question still remains unanswered whether studying abroad really improves the capacity of Saudi students upon entering the workforce (Salisbury et.al, 2013).

Role of Second Language

Benson, P. (2013). Second language identity in narratives of study abroad. Washington: The Brookings Institution.
Studying abroad to a nation where the student’s first language is not spoken can be extremely beneficial to improving one’s language ability. As demonstrated in Benson, Barkhuizen, Bodycott, and Brown’s “Second Language Identity in Narrative of Study Abroad” (2013), studying abroad affects students on many different levels of education as they continually practice their second language in different academic, social, and cultural settings. The book uses narrative research to explore how studying abroad impacts second language identities. Although it offers some insights on the issue of identity, no specific examples of Saudi Arabian students are given as the authors focus on Hong Kong and Australian students.

Moving Forward

Perna, L. W. (2013). Preparing today's students for tomorrow's jobs in Metropolitan America. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
In order to enhance the quality and quantity of successful study abroad experiences for Saudi students, it is important for staff and faculty to engage students and inspire them to reach their full potential (Perna, 2013). This way, students will benefit in the long term and one day bring growth to whatever industry they end up in. It is most important for students to work hard and diligently while on the study abroad so that they can reap the maximum benefit of their experiences. In summation, this source points out that there is no way to avoid globalisation and that studying abroad programmes can help students prepare both their personal life and one’s career path domestically and globally.

References

Benson, P. (2013). Second language identity in narratives of study abroad. Washington: The Brookings Institution.
Cressey, W. W. (2004). Guide to studying abroad. New York: Random House.
Denman, Brian D., and Kholoud T. Hilal. “From Barrier to Bridges: An Investigation On Saudi Student Mobility (2006-2009).” International Review Of Education 57.3-4 (2011): 299-318. ERIC. Web. 9 March 2014.
Lennon, A. T. J. (2007). The epicenter of crisis: The new Middle East. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Mahmood, Z. (2013). E-government implementation and practice in developing countries. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.
Marklein, Mary Beth. “Record Number of Foreign Students in US” USA Today. November 12, 2012. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 March 2014.
McKeown, J. S. (2009). The first time effect: The impact of study abroad on college student intellectual development. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Mills, Andrew. “Poorly Performing Students Ordered Home By Saudis.” Chronicle of Higher Education. 55.6 (2008): A24. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 March 2014.
Ministry of Higher Education. "King Abdullah Scholarship Program." Www.sacm.org. N.p., 2011. Web. 9 Mar. 2014. <http://www.sacm.org/ArabicSACM/pdf/education_web.pdf>.
Parey, M. & Waldinger, F. (2009). Studying Abroad and the Effect on the International Labor Market Mobility. Retrieved on March 9, 2014 from http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/staff/academic/waldinger/research/studyingabroad5_mp_oct9.pdf
Perna, L. W. (2013). Preparing today's students for tomorrow's jobs in Metropolitan America. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Rogers, M. (2004). Knowledge, technological catch-up and economic growth. Cheltenham, U.K: E. Elgar Pub.
Salisbury, M. H., Twombly, S. B., Tumanut, S. D., & Klute, P. (2013). Study abroad in a new global century: Renewing the promise, refining the purpose, ashe higher education report. San Francisco, Calif: Jossey-Bass.
Smith, L., & Abu, A. A.-R. M. (2013). Higher education in Saudi Arabia: Achievements, challenges and opportunities. Dordrecht: Springer.